Finally gonna do it; TopLoader 4 speed to TKO-600 swap!

[mrtleavitt]

Very Impressive!

Just to let you know, I hate you, my wife hates you, and my wallet as well. You know that I am definitely going to have to do this now. Thanks for the write-up.

[69timemachine]

[yeager351]

Mine should be mobil today. This swap is actually really easy and straight forward. I'd rate my own abilities a 6 out of 10 and I've not really had anything come up that's stopped my progress.

[69timemachine]

[HIO Silver]

We'll get pics soon enough so chill there young padawan.

I'm gonna modify the trans crossmember so i can run dual exhaust without having to sister them along the right frame rail. It'll be done by sectioning the crossmember with 4-inch pipe and gusseting them to the crossmember - think of a pair of eyeglasses. Yeah, you get it.

[mrtleavitt]

Lack of a post worries me...Everything ok?

[HIO Silver]

Lack of a post worries me...Everything ok?

Everthing is faboo.. I moved on to refinishing and reinstalling the front end sheetmetal in advance of the rains. In addition, getting the engine dressed before crawling underneath to finish up mounting the TKO. Right now it is temporarily resting on the stock crossmember.

Here's progress on my rig since mid-October: http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/11548 ... st13624567

It gets hecka dark early these fall days so meaningful progress will take place on weekends....

[Norse]

Awesome post!
Thanks for linking it to me.

Now I have to see if I am going to buy this bump or not.
Because just what I need is another project to do in my life.

[69timemachine]

It's been a while since I've posted, but I just wanted to give an update. Everything is still great with the transmission. Fuel mileage increase is holding steady around 20%. This is hands down the best thing I've done to my truck! I mean it's just as good (or maybe even better) than swapping in the V8; it's that big of a difference! I still highly recommend it to anyone wanting a stout manual transmission AND overdrive.

[HIO Silver]

Thanks for bringing this up to the top... my TKO-500 is in and working great.... below is the modified crossmember and everything installed. My MPG went from from 11 mpg to 17 mpg and is getting better as the EFI learns more and more....

Concur with 69timemachine... go overdrive!

[69timemachine]

Nice to see that you got it finished! I was wondering how it turned out? Good to know!

[69timemachine]

No issues to report. I did a fluid change a while back and that's about it. The TKO-600 is still running great!
TKO-swap the world!

[69timemachine]

As they say, no news is good news. My transmission is running great!
I did a little work on my truck over the winter and stumbled across a bad speedometer drive gear, which was caused by a tight speedometer cable. I don't know why the speedometer cable went bad, as I just changed it several years ago when I did the TKO swap. That cable didn't have a ton of miles on it. Anyhow, a new speedometer cable and $10 gear from eBay and it's all good again. I had wondered at times why my speedometer was so jumpy and bouncy at low speeds? A tight speedometer cable will bind, release, bind, release, and cause the needle to jump at low speeds. Now I know!

[Ranchero50]

Yep, mine does it when it's below 20`.

[69timemachine]

Yep, mine does it when it's below 20`.

Oh, your needle bounces?
I was told by American Powertrain that with my 4.56 gears and the thin-tooth gear that it takes to get my speedo close to right, that the gear wouldn't last but maybe 20,000 to 30,000 miles. I told them that it was fine because it would take me quite a while to put that many miles on it anyway. Having said that, the thin teeth didn't like that speedo cable becoming hard to turn, so that's what trashed the gear. Hopefully the new cable lives a much longer life and keeps my gear alive.